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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken two sites along the Great Lakes in Michigan off a list of toxic hot spots after decades of remediation efforts.

The EPA on Thursday officially delisted Deer Lake in the Lake Superior basin and White Lake in the Lake Michigan basin as so-called Areas of Concern (AOCs) included in a 1987 cleanup agreement between the U.S. and Canada.

Eleven AOCs in Michigan remain, including those in the Detroit and Rouge rivers. Six are targeted for remediation to be completed as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's second phase, announced this year.

There are more than two dozen sites around the Great Lakes — including those in Michigan — still on the list, though several are targeted for completion in the next five years.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., credited the efforts made through the first phase of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which began in 2010, with helping to get Deer Lake and White Lake off the list.

She called Thursday's announcement "a major achievement that reflects the decades of hard work" both by local communities and the federal government. She noted that Deer Lake and White Lake are the first AOCs in the cleanup agreement to be delisted.

The Deer Lake AOC, along the southern shore of Lake Superior on the Upper Peninsula, was listed because of mercury contamination that leached into water flowing through an abandoned iron mine, as well as other pollutants. Mercury contamination in fish — and reproductive problems — also were documented in animals and birds, including bald eagles.

The remediation efforts included a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant for $8 million that helped pay for a project diverting water from Partridge Creek. It previously fed the stream flowing through old mine workings under Ishpeming, which then ran into another creek and into Deer Lake.

The White Lake AOC was on Lake Michigan in Muskegon County and had been contaminated by pollution — especially organic solvents — from tannery operations, chemical manufacturing and other sources, degrading fish and wildlife habitats.

A $2.5-million grant was used to remove contaminated sediment and restore shoreline, with more than 100,000 cubic yards being removed.

Last summer, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality formally requested the EPA delist the two AOCs.

In 2013, the Presque Isle Bay AOC in Pennsylvania was delisted. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding has been used to finish remediation and restoration efforts at three AOCs in Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin, which are being monitored for delisting.